


Afternoon Drive

by Phantom



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-09
Updated: 2013-11-09
Packaged: 2017-12-31 23:48:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1037840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phantom/pseuds/Phantom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Asami and Korra are each trying not to think about things. Set in between seasons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Afternoon Drive

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mazily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mazily/gifts).



The problem was not that Asami was a bad teacher, nor even that driving a Satomobile was fundamentally different from riding a polar beardog. Korra approached them the same. She shouted at the machine the way she spoke to Naga, and it behaved according to its own will approximately half the time. Same as Naga. 

The problem was not that she was confused by the basic concepts of “braking” or “speed limits”, or that she had trouble driving in a straight line and steering around corners, though all of that was certainly true and the one time Bolin had come along with them he’d spent most of his time cowering in the backseat with his fingers covering Pabu's eyes. 

Mako (somewhat wisely, even Korra had to admit) refused to be physically present in any vehicle operated by her.

So she wasn’t a great driver. 

That wasn’t the problem.

The problem was Asami, and the fact that awareness of Asami, or thoughts of Asami, were innately distracting to Korra, and provoked certain... feelings. 

Funny, fluttering feelings in the pit of her belly, that made her hands tremble when Asami corrected her grip on the wheel and her fingers firmly squeezed Korra’s own. Feelings she definitely shouldn’t be having for one of her best friends. Especially the one who was her ex-boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend. That was just asking for trouble, and she was trying not to do that anymore, really she was. 

Except...

Well, it was complicated, and the more Korra thought about it the more confused she became, and though she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was driving straight for the edge of a cliff, she kept showing up for her lessons with Asami anyway. 

Partly because thoughts of Asami (Asami facing off against the Equalists, Asami in the pool, Asami flipping her hair over her shoulder in that way of hers, Asami beautiful and graceful and powerful) followed her everywhere she went so she might as well keep seeing her.

Partly because her bending hasn’t been quite right since the South Pole and for all Tenzin’s talk of balance, Korra felt anything but. That worried her a little, because Bei Fong didn’t seem to be having a problem. Upon their return to Republic City she’d marched on up to the station. What happened inside, no one knew for sure, but the next day she was back on the force.

They’d seen each other a few times since then. Bei Fong was more... gruffly tolerant of her than ever before, but they weren’t exactly friends and Korra wasn’t about to waltz on in there and ask if she’d noticed anything funny about her bending lately.

But this was all the stuff that she was determined not to think about while she was with Asami, so Korra closed her eyes and tried to put it out of her mind. 

That was a mistake.

“Korra!” Asami yelped. “You can’t _drive_ with your eyes closed!”

Right.

Korra braked, a little too hard, and the Satomobile came to a jerky stop. 

She gave Asami a sheepish look. “Um. Sorry?”

Asami sighed, and issued Korra a stern order to pull over.

She did, parking at the curb. They stuck to the less-frequented areas of Republic City or the outskirts, for Korra’s nerves and the safety of the general public, and this particular street was in a quiet residential area not far from the Sato mansion. There were fewer roads out that way, but Korra never suggested going there. Asami had remained on Air Temple Island since their return to Republic City, and no one questioned that decision.

“What’s going on with you?” Asami demanded to know. 

Korra shrugged, because she couldn’t very well tell Asami the truth. “Just... I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

“Well, me too,” Asami said, and leaned back in her seat. 

“Oh,” Korra said, because of course Asami had problems too. Bigger problems than Korra's own. “Do you... want to talk about it?”

“Not much to say.” Asami shrugged, tucking stray hair behind her ear. Her perfectly formed ear, Korra noticed. “After what my—my father did, Future Industries isn’t very popular right now. You can probably imagine.” 

“What are you going to do about it?”

Another shrug. “I could sell to Cabbage Corp. They’ve made an offer. Not a high one, but it’d be something. I could start over. But the company is mine and Republic City is my home and I just... I don’t know.”

Korra tried to hide her dismay at the prospect of Asami leaving. “That’s hard.”

“But—" Asami let out a shaky breath, and smiled sideways at Korra. “I come and put my life in your hands so that for an hour a day I don’t have to think about that.”

That was either extremely unsubtle, or Korra was getting better at taking hints.

“I—I like spending time with you,” Korra confessed. “It’s good for me too.”

Asami’s smile widened. She laid her hand on Korra’s arm, fingers sliding from her elbow to her wrist. “I have an idea, then,” she said, “and you can say no, but—what if we... went somewhere else for awhile? Somewhere fun. Together, and we don’t talk about our problems.”

“Together,” Korra repeated.

Asami nodded.

Korra’s mind ran through the last couple of weeks. All the little looks, the light touches, the hugs at the beginning and the end of the lessons. 

“Like a—" Her mouth was dry. Korra licked her lips. “Like a date, you mean?”

Asami bit her lip. “Yes?”

It was a question, hanging in the air over them. Her choice, then. And, okay, Korra didn’t have the best luck going on dates with her friends, but none of them had been so disastrous as to ruin the friendship so that wasn’t really something she worried about. It was just that Asami made her feel so... uniquely off-balance and she wasn’t sure what to do with that. 

“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” Asami added. “Just forget I—"

“No!” Korra blurted out. “No, I think it’s a great idea.”

Asami blinked. “You do?”

“Yeah,” Korra said. “Let’s do it. Let's go on a date.”

Then they sat together in awkward silence. 

Asami broke it first, covering her mouth with her hand as she broke into nervous giggles. Korra followed suit, and for another moment they sat side-by-side looking anywhere but at each other. 

“Where to?” Korra asked at last, starting the car back up.

“Um,” Asami said, reaching to lay her hand over Korra’s. “I think maybe I should drive.”

* * *

So they drove, and drove, and went nowhere at all.

There was talking, Korra was sure. She told the story of how she'd found Naga as a cub, lost in the snow.

Maybe tomorrow, when her head was clearer, she would remember the details.

It was a little harder now, with her mouth on Asami's.

The only thing Korra was sure of was that she was kneeling over Asami's lap, hands in her hair and Asami's fingernails grazing her arms. 

Korra hadn't spent a lot of time kissing people but she might've if she'd known it could be like this, all sweet and heady and deliciously tingly. Asami's fingers, slender and warm, slipped beneath her shirt to rest against her bare skin and goosebumps rose up in their wake. 

Asami followed them with her fingertips, drawing unidentifiable shapes in Korra's skin. 

Korra gasped into Asami’s mouth, moving against her in response and felt Asami’s grip tighten around her.

Okay, she thought, curling a hand around the back of Asami’s neck. She could do this.

Whatever happened, for now, there was this.


End file.
